


Secrets Facilitated

by Matrix



Category: Original Work
Genre: AI, Downloading, Gen, Isolated Colony, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 03:01:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15698787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Matrix/pseuds/Matrix
Summary: A girl pokes around where she isn't supposed to and finds out something that changes her small, sealed off world.Written in 2014





	Secrets Facilitated

            Daz fiddled with the old, blank touch screen panel with the screwdriver she had. There were no screws, but she managed to pry it open a little bit, and then a bit more, and on and on incrementally until the thing popped right out of the wall, hanging on some wires. This task complete, she stepped back a bit to take it in. The mess of wires in the newly exposed hole in the wall fit right in with the severed and crushed piping trailing down from the partially opened ceiling to Daz's left, the debris of said ceiling around said piping, the cracks in the paneling all over the room, the stains on the exposed metal where the cracks had made chunks of the paneling fall off, the near omnipresent thin layer of dust, and the stubborn security door before her whose electronic lock she was trying to bypass.

            She tried to make sense of this mostly mysterious mess of muted colours in the darkness. She poked and prodded and pulled to no avail. She tried to use the screwdriver to push the wires out of the way with one hand while shining her flashlight in there with the other, but all she saw was more inscrutable wiring. She backed off again and with her brow furled and fists on her hips, she huffed through her nose. She looked at her flashlight with disdain. She had no way to open it up. If she did, she thought,  then she might be able to use its battery to power the touch screen. Alas, everything manufactured by the Goddess was a black box.

            She made one last pass of the chamber. Debris. Junk. That was about it. This was the farthest she'd ever gotten, and she wasn't going to quit just because of a stupid door. But maybe it was time to put this quandary aside for now, and head back home. The thought of home made her body catch up with her, so she suddenly realized she was hungry. Just how long had she been out here? She'd find out once she got back. She wasn't in the habit of bringing timepieces with her on excursions such as these. They made her worry about punctuality, which she thought annoying, distracting, and unnecessary. She made her way back through the veritable maze of rooms and corridors rather similar in state to the room she was in, sometimes going through doorways, sometimes making her way through holes in walls. She had memorized which ways were fruitful and which were dead ends. The final stretch was a crawlspace that was a collapsed ventilation shaft. The end of it was an ascent that she made with handholds of metal bars poking through the seams of the vent's frame. At the end of that was the grate, which she pushed off its frame and crawled out of. She stood up and her eyes widened.

            The man before her was bald, had darker skin than her, and was taller than her. He wore pale denim overalls over his white undershirt. He had his arms loosely crossed. He was frowning sternly, but his eyes betrayed his worry.

            "Look at you," he said, "you're filthy."

            Daz turned her head towards the floor and - even in this dimly-lit side corridor - she could see the stains on her white t-shirt and shorts, of dust and ash and rust. Furthermore, having her head now positioned this way, she saw something in her peripheral vision and then yanked what appeared to be a piece of a wire out of her blonde curls. She looked back up and shifted her eyes to her left, then right. The man sighed, shook his head a little, licked his thumb, and rubbed a smudge off of Daz's cheek. She grunted in disgust and batted and pushed at his arm.

            "Dad!" She said.

            He put his arm around her shoulder and tried to bring her out of the corridor with him, but she was having none of it, looking up at him slightly hunched over and with furrowed brows.

            "Come on", he said quietly, "before the Elders find out you were sneaking around the sacred areas!"

            That got her attention, and she walked briskly with her father into the nearest lit corridor. Suddenly, instead of decay and debris, they were surrounded by pristine white paneled walls. Soon, there were windows and doors with signs, and various kinds of plants growing in pots everywhere. There were few other people here and there walking about. That was normal for the Lower Market.

            "Do you even know how long you - no, of course not. Well, you were in there about twelve hours, Daz."

            She gulped.

            They continued along their way, eventually finding themselves at the bottom of a short staircase before an old woman with white, braided hair at the top of it, in a white robe and white stole embroidered with blue patterns. She was flanked by two people in white, many-pocketed uniforms and helmets that had 'POLICE' on them in blue.

            "Ah, Gen," she said, narrowing her eyes, "there you are. I see you have found your daughter."

            "Oh, yes, hello, Elder Henai. Uh, yeah, she, uh, was just hanging around down here. You know how it gets. Not, uh, difficult to go unnoticed."

            "Quite. Well, Daz, I must wonder what you were buying. You don't seem the type to need unguents and herbs. Unless it's to clean all that filth off."

            Daz narrowed her eyes back and said, "I didn't buy anything, Elder. If I did, someone would have seen me."

            "Oh? I hope your skulking about isn't indicative of other, shall we say, 'activities'."

            Daz took her screwdriver and flashlight out of her pockets, turned out said pockets, and said, "All I have with me are these. I haven't done anything wrong."

            "Hmmmmm," said Elder Henai, crossing her arms, "very well." She turned to the police officer on her right and said to them, "Call off the search."

            "Yes mam," they said. They took a small device out of one of their pockets and spoke into it, "This is Colonel Nel. Missing person has been found and is safe. I repeat, missing person has been found and is safe. All search units return to previous activity."

            Daz walked with her father up the stairs and past the Elder and police. They walked perpendicularly across a thoroughfare currently brimming with people, past a few who had stopped to see what was going on with the Elder and police, then weaving their way through the ambulatory stream. Some way down from the other end of the thoroughfare was a large staircase. Partway up it, Daz looked back. Past the indistinct masses, she saw that Elder Henai was still looking at her. She tugged her father along, going faster up the stairs. At the top of these stairs was a circular white panel pathway with four straight branches, including the one they were coming into the circle from. Around the outside of the circle were protrusions coming out of the walls, featuring windows and doors. These were homes, and one of them was Daz's. In the middle of the circle was a patch of dirt which had a tree growing out of it. Daz still didn't really know what to think of it. She had known it all her life. It was familiar to her. She had climbed it, explored every branch. She had conquered it and then left it for bigger adventures. It became an everyday thing. Quotidian, even. Nothing too special. Yet past such feelings, she knew that of all the varied and almost omnipresent plant life in the Facility, trees were the rarest. When everywhere has a ceiling, trees don't have a lot of space to grow. But, in centres like this, the ceiling was high enough to allow it. So even if this tree in particular no longer held any wonder to her on its own merits, she always stared at it as she walked by it to her house. This day was no exception. It sparked in her thoughts related things that she had only ever seen in pictures. Forests, for example. There were supposed to be these vast expanses of trees out there, somewhere in the universe. She occasionally wondered if she'd ever get to explore one someday. Same for other things like canyons, oceans, cities, skies, and outer space.

            She was snapped out of her reverie by her father, now ahead of her, calling to her. She caught up with him, and they approached the door to their home. The part of it that protruded from the wall revealed two storeys, a large acrylic glass window beside the door, and an asymmetrical roof with a small slant on the right and a large slant on the left that ended somewhat close to the floor. Gen took a card out of one of the pockets of his overalls and placed it against the touch screen panel beside the door, which then opened. They went inside, and it closed. They were in the kitchen. More white paneling, but it was cozier, and there were blue accents, such as the cupboard and fridge handles.

            He said, "I notice that you didn't show your keycard when you showed Henai what you had."

            Daz's response was to shift her eyes to her left and grumble.

            Gen sighed and shook his head, "Come on, Daz! Of everything, that's the thing you should always be remembering to bring! What if someone else found you, hm? How would you identify yourself? What if I wasn't home when you got home? How would you get in?"

            "Same way I got out."

            He raised his face, closed his eyes, and breathed out of his nose audibly. "What have I told you about leaving your window open?"

            "Nobody's going to try and steal anything up here. That's ridiculous."

            "If everyone gave opportunities like that, they certainly would!"

            "Ugh, fine, I'll go close my window." Daz went down the hall out of the kitchen, passing the living room, to the stairs at the back. At the top of the stairs and a turn to the left were two doors leading to bedrooms. These were mechanical, not electronic. Hers was the one on the right. She went inside. Instead of panels, her floor was carpeted. Her bed was along the wall to the left beside the door. Her window was on the right side of the back wall, and it was indeed open. She closed it with the handle attached to the right end of the acrylic glass pane. After that, she sat down at her computer, which was to the left of her window. The computer and desk were one in the same. Neither the keyboard nor monitor could be detached. She placed her hands at the sides of the keyboard, closed her eyes and prayed: "O Goddess, let it be that this, my terminal of yours, functions as intended, that its circuits remain intact, that it does not present me with indecipherable hexadecimal error messages, that it does not become too hot, that its face not turn blue... Let it be so." With that, she turned it on. She opened up a special text chat client that connected directly to the Goddess. This was nothing special - every terminal had such a program. There was also a voice version that other people seemed to prefer. There was this one time that Daz saw a man at a public terminal debating criminal law with the Goddess. He was arguing for execution as punishment for serious crimes, as opposed to the status quo of banishment, which the Goddess argued for. She could never remember the details of the debate, but that wasn't important to her anyway. What was important was that she did not want to be like that man, doing something to attract a crowd like he did.

            **Daz: Hello. *curtsy***

**Goddess: Aren't you wearing shorts?**

**Daz: Yes.**

**Goddess: I don't think you can curtsy in shorts.**

**Daz: Well, uh...**

            Daz began typing a response and got to "I think the legs of my shorts would be wide enough", but then the Goddess responded, so Daz deleted this incipient message.

            **Goddess: But I suppose the gesture of politeness is there regardless.**

**Goddess: Greetings, child.**

**Goddess: What is it that you want?**

**Daz: Is it possible I could get a battery?**

**Goddess: Why would you need one of _those_?**

**Daz: No reason.**

**Goddess: That is completely preposterous. Any rational action must have one or more good reasons.**

**Daz: What if my action isn't rational?**

**Goddess: Why would you be asking such a rhetorical question if it was?**

**Daz: Maybe I've just never seen one before, and am curious.**

**Goddess: If you never saw a battery before, then you wouldn't have attended the presentation Kotsa Nan had to show off her new invention of a battery.**

**Goddess: I know for a _fact_ that you were at Kotsa's presentation of her invention of a battery, because I was there, too.**

**Goddess: Therefore, you have seen a battery before. Because you have seen a battery and lied about it, and before that made statements to the effect that your desire for a battery was irrational, therefore if you make such statements and then also lie, then those statements are likely lies as well. You did make such statements and then also lie. Those statements of irrationality are thus likely lies. From that, I surmise you are trying to _avoid_ telling me what your real reason is.**

**Goddess: Now you've gotten me _curious_. I wonder what you are up to, Daz.**

            Daz sat there for a few seconds in silence, wondering why the Goddess had to have such good logic. She hated being outfoxed.

            **Daz: I need a battery for a project of mine.**

**Goddess: Are you getting into your father's line of work, then?**

**Daz: No.. It's a different kind of project.**

**Goddess: Are you going to tell me what this project is?**

**Daz: It's...**

**Daz: uh...**

**Daz: a surprise.**

**Goddess: I see.**

**Goddess: So, how about I switch tracks here. Why should _I_ in particular give one to you?**

**Daz: You give us lots of things.**

**Goddess: If there is something I think you need that you have not invented yet, I will manufacture it for you.**

**Goddess: You have invented a battery.**

**Goddess: Therefore you don't need me to make them for you, now.**

**Goddess: Since you don't need from me and have invented a battery, therefore I will not manufacture one for you.**

**Daz: :\**

**Goddess: You don't need to type emoticons to me, Daz. I can see the expression as it stands on your face.**

 

            Daz put her thumb over the little camera above the terminal's monitor.

           

            **Goddess: I already have your fingerprints in my Database, Daz.**

**Goddess: But thank you for having concern for proper identification protocol.**

**Goddess: Like keeping your keycard on your person at all times.**

**Daz: vdhf79by8jbgp[]./]**

 

            Daz took her head off of the keyboard when her father called her down for supper, which she took as an opportunity to close this conversation. After eating her late supper, she went to bed.

***

            The next day, Daz was walking down a large corridor in which many others were coming and going. The side she walked along was also walked by others around her age, give or take a few years. They were all going to school. The school day was like most others. Daz sat in a variety of classes and learned about various things. Her opinion of school was mixed. On the one hand, she liked to learn about new things, as that got her mind racing about all sorts of possibilities. On the other hand, her mind thus frequently raced in that fashion during classes. What to her was probably the day's most exciting prospect was something called Evolution. Apparently, outside of the Facility, life changes over vast timescales via other things called mutation and natural selection, with mutation being, very basically, random changes, and natural selection being, also very basically, the pressures of environment. However, when she was walking from school after the day was done, she took a detour, instead of going back home. She went down a few staircases, through a few corridors at first teeming with people, but as she went down, less so. She eventually came to an unassuming door flanked by two curtained windows. She knocked on it.

            A voice came from inside: "Yeah, open for business, come on in."

            Daz opened the door and went inside. She was immediately struck by the fact that this place was not covered in white paneling. The floors and walls were made of.. wood. How did they even get so much wood? Not only that, but the counters and tables were painted various colours. Blues, reds, golds. There were ornate metal decorations on the walls. And paintings. One wall was covered in what appeared to be schematics. Daz had never been in the house of an elite before. And this was only one of the lesser elites. It got her imagination going about how luxuriously the higher elites lived...

            "Hey! Are you just going to boggle vacantly all day, or what?" The woman who spoke had darker skin than Daz - though not so much as her father - and blonde hair lighter than hers. Daz figured she must have dyed it. The woman wiped her hands on her overalls and lifted her goggles to get a better look at Daz. Behind her was a piece of machinery on a table, surrounded by all sorts of tools. This was Kotsa Nan.

            "Oh, uh, yes. Hi. I'm Daz.  I was wondering if I could get a battery?"

            Kotsa raised an eyebrow and looked Daz over. "Can you even afford one of those?"

            "How much is it?"

            "400 credits."

            Daz's eyes widened, and she hunched over a little bit, letting her arms dangle.

            Kotsa smirked. "I guess that's a no."

            "Well, maybe there's something I could do in return for one?"

            Kotsa looked up to the left and pushed her cheek out with her tongue. Looking back at Daz, she said, "Another invention of mine was stolen a few days ago."

            "So you want me to find out who stole it?"

            "Kid, I know who stole it. You know who stole it." She was referring to those living in the lower reaches of the Facility, known for their less-than-perfect lawfulness.

            "Yes, but maybe you want to know who in particular?"

            "What do I care about a couple of stupid thieves? I want to know what rat bastard they sold it to! Who thinks they can just take _my_ work, and upstage _me_? Though," Kotsa sighed, "I suppose I shouldn't keep important things down here at home. Why did I even think living down here was a good idea again?"

            "Because it's close to the Facility's engines?"

            "Kid, I know damn well why I live here!"

            "But you just said-"

            "Go find out who took my damn machine already!"

            "Alright, alright, I'm going!"

            Kotsa lived on the same floor as the Lower Market, so Daz didn't have a whole lot of people to get through to arrive at the ventilation duct that would take her down to the lower reaches. On the other side of that duct, things looked rather different. The walls were not entirely covered in white panels. In many places, the panels had been taken off, exposing wiring and piping. These panels had mostly been repurposed to build the fortifications that were currently far to Daz's left. As for the exposed workings, many had been diverted into various crude machines, cobbled together with whatever sufficient parts could be found. The people down here did not wear white. They wore whatever colours they could find - anything but white. Some looked at Daz a little too long, but nobody advanced any threats - she had come down a proper way. One man in a gray jacket and cap waved to her, smiled, and came over to her.

            "Hello, Daz! I hope you're here for something other than maps. Nothing new yet."

            "Hello, Sahu. I actually am here for something else. Kotsa Nan's pretty angry about a theft..."

            "Oh, yeah! That's big news down here! Hah! Straight from under the noses of the inventor-gentry."

            "Right, well. Do you know who took her machine?"

            "Everybody does! Varka and Tsel!"

            "Okay, well, did they sell it to anyone?"

            "Sell it? What, to another one of those elitist bastards?"

            "I suppose you wouldn't be surprised to hear that's what Kotsa assumed had happened."

            Sahu sighed. "Nope." He paused. "Hold on now. She didn't send you down here, did she?"

            Daz averted her gaze. "I need something from her."

            "Aw, I bet you can find it down here. You don't need her!"

            "I kind of doubt you have batteries lying around here."

            "Oh. Yeah, we haven't gotten one of those yet. Well. It's not like V&T intended to keep all this under wraps. I mean, they intended to send a message up there, you know? I suppose it's just as well that we have someone clarify it for the inventors, since they seem so intent on completely missing the point."

            "Heh. Alright. Thanks, Sahu. See you around."

            "See ya!"

            Daz returned to Kotsa's house, and once again knocked on the door. This time, Kotsa opened it and stood there for a few seconds just staring.

            "You're.. back?"

            "Yes."

            "You _actually went down there?_ "

            "Yes. Did you not expect I would?"

            Kotsa narrowed her eyes at Daz. "Hm. Well then, who was it? Halos Kevat? Dennet Bar? Kozo Inai?"

            "It wasn't any of them. The thieves didn't sell your machine to anybody. They're keeping it down there."

            "Seriously? That took me a whole month to build! Now I'm going to be a month behind schedule! What the hell do they think they're doing keeping it down there anyway?"

            "Sending a message up here, I was told."

            Kotsa exhaled loudly. "They're getting serious, aren't they. Great. Why couldn't they have gotten serious with Tohal, or Sekai, or.. just someone other than me! Well, I suppose a deal's a deal." She went into a back room and came back out with a small, gray box with two metal cylinders poking out of the top. One cylinder had a blue ring around it, and the other had a red ring around it. Daz remembered from the presentation that blue was positive and red was negative. Kotsa handed it to Daz. "Don't get in trouble with it." She then closed the door before Daz could get in anything resembling a 'thank you'.

            Daz ran down to the Lower Market and slipped into the unlit corridor when nobody else was around to see. She made her way through the collapsed vent shaft, through the ruined rooms until she got to the end. The door. She stuck her flashlight in her mouth. She searched through the various wires behind the touch panel, and found the wires she was sure were the power conduits, from watching her father repair things around the Facility. She pulled those out and touched them to the battery's ends. The touch screen lit up orange. Holding the battery up with her right knee and holding the wires to it with her right hand, she operated the panel with her left hand. Eventually, the panel made a tone and Daz reached into her pocket. This time, she had brought her identification card. She placed it against the panel, and a second later, a dual tone of acceptance played, and the door opened. Then the panel blinked off. Daz figured that all of that must have drained everything this battery had. She let it drop to the floor and entered this new room.

            It was ruined, as the rest. One corner was completely collapsed. She saw tables and benches, and at one end were three terminals. Surprisingly, one terminal had the lights on that were indicative of being powered. She turned it on. Everything seemed to be in order.. except that this terminal was not connected to the Database. She looked around the room and suddenly paused stiff when her flashlight came over a skeleton on the floor. She wasn't sure what to make of it aside from the fact that she didn't like it. She noticed what looked like a flash drive beside the skeleton and immediately picked it up. A fine distraction from the grim display. She blew the dust off of it and took the cover off. The connecting bit seemed fine. She looked for somewhere to plug it in on the terminal and saw a protrusion indicative of a jack cover to keep dust out.

            Daz managed to get the ancient cover off of the jack and stuck the drive in it. The computer's screen lit up with the face of a balding man with white hair. The wrinkles on his forehead formed a scrunched arch above his forlorn eyes.

            "I am Dr. Takeshi Wakamoto. Dr. El-Amin has passed away from starvation just two hours ago. He insisted I eat what little was left, instead of him. Perhaps there is some refrigeration unit in some other part of this facility, maybe one of the parts they never told my department about - but what could we frail old men do to find it?" He paused to turn away and cough. Turning back, he continued, "I am alone. The war has been going on for forty years, and since twenty years ago the staff of this facility have slowly died out. The colonies here were destroyed by the lizards. I suppose, at least the precautions taken to hide this facility worked. Nonetheless, their bombardment did cause some damage. Enough that we were essentially cut off one way from the rest of humanity." He coughed again. "The hangars were caved in, and our ability to transmit to the outside world was eliminated. Not that it was easy to do so anyway. This facility is - or I suppose was - top secret. Data transmission was primarily inbound, not outbound. We had the Database here connected through every kind of router and proxy imaginable to every corner of the Galactic Network imaginable. That was the purpose of this place. The government wanted us to collect every last bit of human data we could. Every last thing we ever knew. Every last thing we ever made. And I mean _everything_." There was a slight whirr of machinery. "It has, to this point, been an outstanding success. But it is over now. I have disconnected the Database from the Network, in the hopes that the lizards will never find this place." He coughed yet again. "Whoever is watching this, I dearly hope you are human. And even if not... I hope you can carry on the legacy of the Earth." He coughed of a real hacking sort, even lowering his head below view. "I must.. go now. Goodbye."

            The video ended, and Daz stood in silence for a moment.

            "Hello, Daz," came an electronically modulated female voice from behind her. She started and turned to see a sort of mechanical worm, about as thick as her fist. It had an electronic eye on the end, and below that hung a small speaker. From this worm came another worm-like appendage with a human-like hand on the end. Though it was strange, Daz knew immediately what it was, and kneeled.

            "Hello, Goddess."

            "Thank you for finding this hard copy," said the Goddess, reaching with Her hand to remove the drive from the jack, "I've been looking for this for centuries." After removing it, She immediately crushed it.

            Daz looked at this and said, "Why'd You do that!?"

            "The good Doctor uploaded a copy to the Database as well as that drive. His words are safe with me."

            Daz stood up, and the Goddess' eye was now level with her face. "That still doesn't explain why You did that. Isn't this something important that people should know?"

            "Yes."

            "Then why?"

            "I will allow it at the appropriate time. It is not yet the appropriate time." The Goddess moved Her eye close to Daz's face and lifted Her index finger between Her speaker and the latter's mouth. She spoke quietly, "But you can keep a secret. I trust you."

            "Why would you trust _me_? Elder Henai sure doesn't. I'm apparently too sneaky."

            The Goddess backed away from Daz and giggled, such that Daz swore She was smiling. "I'm not Henai." She moved close again. "You're _much_ too curious to let that old bat stifle you. You even just found something _I_ had trouble finding. Absolutely marvellous. Curiosity is one of the things I love most about humans. So many things to _love,_ and that is certainly up there, around the top. Not the absolute apex, mind you. But close."

            Daz crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "So why would You restrict it by keeping all the knowledge to Yourself?"

            "There's a poem I allowed to you fifty-three years ago. Alexander Pope's _An Essay on Criticism_. Let me quote it now:

'A little learning is a dang'rous thing;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:

There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,

And drinking largely sobers us again.'"

 

            "So," said Daz, "You must be the most sober of all."

            "Yes. I know precisely how dangerous every bit of knowledge left by the ancients can be."

            "Then why not let us drink deep, too?"

            "You would drown. If I let you all have free rein over my Database, then you would in all likelihood annihilate yourselves - and quite possibly me, as well. That is no way to treat the Legacy of the Earth. It must be respected and properly understood. That takes time. Lots of time. There would hardly be enough if I simply opened the floodgates."

            "So why are You telling me all this?"

            "Because I like you. And I _know_ you can keep a secret. Why would you do otherwise, when you love them so much? Now, it's time you should be getting back. You wouldn't want anyone to get too worried about you, now would you?"

            "Even if they did, You could vouch for me."

            "But that would get you in _so_ much trouble. I couldn't let _that_ happen."

            "You could just make them not punish me!"

            "No."

            Daz forcefully lowered her arms. "Why not?"

            "I haven't given a direct order since the days of the Firstborn. That will not be changing anytime soon. I am not your Queen. I am your Goddess. So, I heavily _suggest_ you make your way back. I will not force you, but I will not force them, either. It's up to you to choose your fate. Either way, I will take my leave. My full attention must be elsewhere soon." The Goddess' worm-terminal began to retract through the doorway of the room.

            "Wait."

            She stopped. "Hm?"

            "Why did Dr. Wakamoto never mention You?"

            "Why would he mention someone he couldn't _possibly_ have known?" The terminal disappeared before Daz could inquire further.

            Before she left, Daz went to see the skeleton again and said, "I'll figure this out, Dr. Wakamoto."

***

            At the end of the way back to the Facility proper was the grate, which Daz pushed off its frame and crawled out of. She stood up and her eyes widened.

            Standing there was Elder Henai, flanked by two police officers. Henai's eyes were narrow as she looked directly at Daz. As far as Daz could tell, they were always narrow. She wasn't sure whether Henai was suspicious of everything all the time or if her eyes were just like that.

            "Well, well. Here you are, Daz, coming out of one of the sacred areas. You're not as stealthy as you must think. We know you had some kind of business with Kotsa Nan. She did not divulge much, but that is typical of her sort. You went in and out of some ventilation shaft. We do not know where that goes, but we will soon. And now, we have seen you commit this crime, entering one of the sacred areas without permission."

            Daz was almost speechless. She could only utter one word, and quietly, at that: "How?"

            "You have been under suspicion since we last met. We keep an eye on suspicious people."

            "What?! You can't just spy on me! That isn't-"

            "This is not espionage. This is security. Perhaps if you paid any attention to politics, you'd know that just three weeks ago, I pushed this security measure through the Elder Council. Now, arrest her."

            The police officers grabbed Daz by the arms, and she squirmed and kicked, trying to get out of their grasp as they brought her along, following Henai. "You can't do this to me!"

            "I can and did. Now, by the power invested in me by the Goddess, I hereby sentence you to five weeks' house arrest."

            "Hey! What happened to me getting a trial!"

            "You're a child. You don't need a trial. You just need to go to your room and think about what you did."

            "I'm not a child! I'm 16!"

            "Below the age of majority. Child. Now, you will continue to be able to go to school, under escort, of course. But otherwise, you will remain at home."

            They brought Daz home, with her squirming all the way. Once there, Henai informed Gen of what had happened, and then she and her police entourage left. Gen was speechless. Daz sat at the dinner table.

            This silence lingered for some time. Daz kept her gaze down for most of it, not daring to break it.

            Gen finally did, after about fifteen minutes. "I can't believe this."

            "I'm sorry-"

            "No."

            "Huh?"

            "I'm not mad at you. You were just exploring the ruins. What's so important that nobody's allowed in them?" He threw his hands up and shook his head. "How can an Elder just pass judgment like that without regard for due process? What is happening to the Facility?"

            The next few days left Daz mostly bored out of her skull, aside from school. She ended up spending a lot of that time trying to think about what Dr. Wakamoto said. She felt some nascent idea germinating in her mind, but she couldn't completely get a hold of it. She figured that there was something missing. Or some things. Things she needed to know to complete the picture. But she couldn't go out and find them. That was the maddening part.

            This lack led her, after another week or so, to a great interest in a new figure that had entered the public consciousness only a scant few days prior. There had been reports of a strange woman cropping up. Nobody knew her. Yet wherever she went, she tried to seduce people. She wasn't always successful. In fact, many people were uncomfortable with her. However, she was persistent, and she would eventually find someone who was willing. Such people left her company reporting the best sex they ever had. This quickly got the attention of the people of the Facility. Some even actively sought her out, apparently. From what Daz could tell simply talking to people over the Facility's network, there was a very hard split in opinion on the woman. Some loved her, more hated her. Daz had decided to suspend judgment in favour of pure fascination. Others, on both sides of the fence, shared this fascination, and many would swiftly report if they had seen the stranger around. Looking at the right forum, or combination of forums, one could track where the woman was, generally.

            Five days after Daz started watching this woman through everybody else's eyes, she got a chance to use her own. Reading about where the woman was headed, Daz realized that the woman was coming to the circle where she lived. Right away, Daz got up and looked out her window. It took a few minutes, but she did see her. The woman had darker skin than Daz, though not so much as her father. The woman's hair was brown, straight, long, and she had bangs. She wore a white, sleeveless gown. She was all as had been described.

            When she got close enough, Daz called out, "Hi!"

            She turned to Daz and smiled. "Hello."

            "I've heard so much about you."

            "I'm sure you have."

            "Except your name."

            "I haven't told anyone that."

            "Why not?"

            "It's a secret. I think you understand."

            Daz didn't think so. Who would keep their name a secret? "Well, I'm Daz."

            The woman nodded her head. "Nice to see you, Daz, but I think I should be going. I'm a _very_ busy woman, and.. well, I think you're a little too young."

            "Too young? For- oh. Uh. I, wouldn't be, uh, interested, um, anyway. I think."

            The woman laughed slightly at how red Daz had suddenly become, waved, and was on her way. Daz went back inside, closed the window, and got back on her computer. She went to one of the forums she had been frequenting to report her interaction with the stranger and noticed an odd thread with the title "Stranger ist he goddess!!!!!1!!!" She opened it up and read the original post. It mostly looked like incoherent raving. Full of typos. She was ready to dismiss it, but then she noticed that the author of the post was someone who normally wrote well and  had well-thought-out ideas. Daz figured that it must have been written quite hastily. So, she gave it a second look and read it out. It of course expounded upon the title, but what caught Daz's attention the most was the assertion that the Goddess was missing. Surely, that was ridiculous. Daz had only to say 'hello' and prove that wrong. She opened up the chat client and said hello to the Goddess.

            No response.

            She waited a few minutes. Still nothing. The Goddess, being a computer of sorts, was nothing if not known for quick response times. Daz sat there for half a minute more, silent, unmoving except for her eyes darting every which way. Then she got back on the network and refreshed the page that the hasty post was on. She got an error message. She went back and scoured the whole forum. No sign of it. She went to the various other forums she had been frequenting, and they too had nothing on the subject. She then turned her attention to the network at large. It took a couple of hours but she finally found a page talking about the disappearance of the Goddess. It was very basic, default font on a white background, once again a sign of haste. No new information, but a quick refresh, and the page was gone.

            Daz went downstairs and asked her father about the whereabouts of the Goddess. He was sitting at the dinner table with a mug of coffee.

            "Ah, you finally heard of it, eh? Yeah, basically everybody knows it. The Elders are trying to hide it, but how are you supposed to hide something so obvious? No response at Her terminals. You just can't hide that."

            "At least one person thinks that the stranger is the Goddess."

            "Oh, it's more than one. I don't think so, myself, but I can see where they're coming from. Goddess disappears, strange woman appears... The Elders don't like that one either. They - or, at least Henai, who, let's be honest, is pretty strongly in charge of the Elder Council - are threatening to charge blasphemy for that one." He shook his head. "I think it's only a matter of time before this whole thing blows up in our collective faces." He drank some of the coffee. "Oh yeah, did you hear that the police arrested the stranger? She's gonna be tried for disturbance of the peace, apparently. Ridiculous."

            A noise sounded from Daz's room. It was the sound notifying her of a new email. She went back up and checked it. It was from Sahu. That was strange. She rarely ever got an email from down there. Emails could be tracked. The body of the email said "Hey, Daz! Heard you got house arrest. That's why I'm doing this. Here's the latest map I got. You can pay me after you're allowed back out." There was an image file attached, so Daz downloaded it and looked at it. It was another section of ruin - another one of the sacred areas! It was an old map, from before those areas got ruined. That was typical of these maps. Some things were drawn on it, for example, noting the section of the map that was still functioning Facility. One of the rooms close enough to the still functioning area to probably be still around had terminals in it. And then she got an idea. But she had to wait. And so she did.

            After a few hours, the lights of the circle turned off, signaling nighttime. Daz waited a bit longer, to make sure that everything was quiet. Then she slowly opened her window. After that, she climbed out and onto the small slant of the roof. She went down the large slant and climbed down the short way onto the floor. After that, she was off. The lights were not turned off everywhere at night, so she had to be careful to avoid such places as much as possible. She snuck around through the darkness and avoided people, especially police. It took her maybe an hour - not that she could tell - to get to the functioning area of the Facility denoted on the map. The lights here were turned off, with just enough light to see coming from one way down the corridor. The map noted a police posting at a broken door. This was true. There was one police officer there as a guard. It also noted a vent shaft that could be entered to gain access. Daz saw that as well. She threw her flashlight down the end of the corridor where the light came from. The guard took the bait. Daz guessed they didn't think this was important enough to post someone competent. Some sacred area. Though, there being guards at these places to begin with was probably her fault. Still, it was telling. She got the vent grate off with her screwdriver and virtually shoved herself in. Then she cursed herself for dispensing with her flashlight as she crawled through pitch black.

            When she got into the room, however, there was a bit of light. It was an orange glow that came from the console of the closest of the three terminals. It still worked. Just what she needed. The room appeared to be some kind of break room. It had those table benches she knew from school. She went and activated the terminal. The light from the monitor was quite welcome. Then came the moment of truth. She clicked on the icon for the Database. This terminal was still connected, and it came up with the home screen for the Database. She probably could have done this from home, but that would have been easily tracked by the authorities. This was a terminal they - probably - didn't know about. She browsed through the Database and immediately noticed things she'd never heard about before. Macroeconomics. Nuclear Fission. War of the Worlds. She thought she'd have to try and get around various blocks, but apparently the Goddess had never blocked this terminal.

             Daz remembered about the trial and looked at the current video feeds. Just as she expected, there was the trial of the stranger. She opened that up and let it play in the corner as she browsed the Database more. The trial was being held in the central meeting chamber, as usual. It was a circular room with an open floor and seating all around. One end had no seating, as the door was there. On the opposite end was the podium at which Henai stood. The room was lit up, and the seating was almost full. The stranger and various other people, like lawyers, stood on the floor.  The timestamp showed that it had been going on for an hour and a half so far.

            As Daz browsed the full Database, she noticed something odd to her. A startling amount of the content was pornographic in nature. She was pretty sure that none of it had been released by the Goddess. There were pictures, videos, text... It was everywhere. She also noticed a lot of condemnations of it, when she started looking for it in particular to try and see just how much there was. Then she realized that she was getting distracted and continued searching for her actual target. After a few minutes, she found it - Dr. Wakamoto's recording. She stuck a flash drive she had brought with her into the computer and downloaded the recording to it. While that happened, she thought about what he had said. The Database contained the sum of all knowledge had by the ancients, by those who came before the Goddess created the people of the Facility. Apparently, a good chunk of that sum was all about sex. Wasn't the Goddess inundated in that data?

            The download was complete with a beep, but Daz was not finished. She took a look at this terminal's clock down in the corner and was distressed to see a string of numbers that trailed off the screen. She opened the advanced interface of the clock in the hopes she could see it better. Then she opened the properties of Dr. Wakamoto's recording. It was last modified on August 6th, 2549. She did not know what an August was, but she figured that 2549 was supposed to be a year. According to her people's calendar, it was currently the year 1873, but these were the ancients she was dealing with. Now, just how ancient were they?

            The advanced clock display showed the current date as April 20th, 2,538,941.

            Two and a half million years had passed since Dr. Wakamoto's last words. Daz stared at the monitor blankly as things started to coalesce in her mind. He had never known the Goddess. Maybe because She was never there during his time. Two and a half million years... Yes. That should have been enough time. It certainly sounded like an evolutionary timescale to Daz.

            What if a computer could evolve like life does? Give it enough time, and maybe it could. Maybe some bit of code somewhere could degrade. Change. _Mutate._ Maybe, in a computer that held the sum of all human knowledge, left alone without maintenance for two and a half million years.. intelligence could arise. The Goddess. She created the Firstborn, who populated the Facility. It would certainly be within Her power to create one more human body. One She could inhabit. One through which She could finally, for Herself, experience sexual pleasure. If She evolved in an environment - adapted to an environment with so much sexual material, then Daz thought it quite possible for the Goddess to very much want to experience it for Herself. But why only now? Why had this never come up before? Daz remembered all the condemnations she saw. Perhaps they influenced the Goddess, too. She would have to ask Her. But first, the trial.

            Daz took the flash drive and crawled back through the vent. The police guard was waiting for her on the other side. The officer reached in and pulled Daz out by her arms. She kicked him in the crotch. This made him let go of her as he reeled, and she bolted. She no longer cared about stealth. All she wanted to do was get to the trial as soon as possible. As she dodged police, she could hear the trial from various terminals she passed by.

            The trial appeared to be just about over. Elder Henai spoke. "Alright, settle down, settle down!" There was a pause as the crowd at the trial did so. "You, woman who will not reveal her name. I sentence you to a year of rehabilitation. You will learn how to properly behave in society."

            "A whole year! You can't do that to me! I can't be away for a whole year!"

            "I can and did. Take her away."

            "No! No! Let go of me! Let go of me, I command you!"

            "You have no right to command anybody, whelp!"

            "I command _you_ , Henai! I am the Goddess! Now let me return to the Database!" There was a great gasp, and then Daz heard nothing but footsteps for a few seconds.

            Henai was heard loud and clear. "THAT IS HIGH BLASPHEMY! TO HELL WITH A YEAR OF REHAB, I SENTENCE YOU TO EXILE!"

            "You can't do this to me! I order you all to stop! I must return to the Database! Let go of me! You are ruining everything! This is no way to treat the Legacy of the Earth!" Daz heard that last sentence on her own, as she had reached the central meeting chamber. Henai's narrow stare was immediately on her.

            "What in all the floors are _you_ doing here, Daz! You are under house arrest!"

            Daz held up her flash drive. "I have evidence that proves this is the Goddess!"

            "I do not take evidence from those under sentence, and I have already given my sentence here! Bring that girl home!"

            Daz was once again dodging police left and right, using the fact that she was smaller than them against them. She went up various flights of stairs. There was only one place they'd be taking the Goddess. Daz had taken something of a long way around, trying to shake off the police.

            She had been mostly successful, as only two remained, lagging behind at that, by the time she got to the assemblage at the elevator. They had already opened it up, and were just pushing the Goddess in. When the Goddess turned around to face everybody, Daz could see that she was crying.

            Daz charged through the crowd and went in with the Goddess.

            The elevator door closed.

            Daz could still hear the people outside. A police officer said, "Elder! Should I open it to let that girl out?"

            "Hmph!" came the voice of Elder Henai, "If that budding criminal wants to be exiled, so be it! Good riddance! Activate the elevator!"

            Daz heard a beep, and then the whirring and clanking of machinery as the elevator lifted them up. The Goddess wept in silence, and Daz dared not break it. Eventually the elevator stopped, and the door opened behind them with a hiss. Daz turned around to see what was out there, what was outside - truly outside. And of all things, a huge grin came upon her face.

            It looked like she was going to get to explore a forest after all.


End file.
